Now the signature red-velvet curtains, chandelier and desks, as well the RocKwiz Orkestra have relocated. The producers relish the space and amenities, and the fans don’t appear even slightly put out. They’re a dedicated bunch and the mood in the room suggests that they’re happy to be here.

That’s in part because the RocKwiz team has kept the brand alive, the format dynamic and the fans entertained with touring shows through the years off-air after it was axed in 2016. As anyone who’s attended a live RocKwiz show knows, the party atmosphere is irresistible. Until COVID hit in 2020, Nankervis recalls: “We were doing two-month national tours, 25 or 30 shows, everywhere from Burnie to Darwin.” More recently, for logistical reasons, they settled for single nights in major cities.

Beyond that, RocKwiz has built a solid social-media following, with nearly 97,000 Facebook friends, in addition to a mailing list of just under 30,000. “We have massive engagement compared to a lot of other TV shows,” says Bain-Hogg. “If I put up a post, we’ll get 30,000 likes very quickly, up to 60,000 in some cases, and hundreds of comments.” So when he put out the call online for audience members one morning at 6am, he had to close applications with an apologetic announcement at 11am as all the seats had been filled.

Given the goodwill, it might be hard to understand why SBS discontinued the show, which ran from 2005-2016. “We were commissioned in a period when they were trying to reboot entertainment on the network,” Connor recalls. But then the axe fell, Bain-Hogg explaining: “They were moving back to charter, to be a lot more story-driven, more social-issue-driven.”

Believing that their format and well-established team still had life left in them, the producers pitched the show elsewhere without success. “We spoke to quite a few of the networks and they said they liked the show, but most of them said it felt like a product that everyone’s familiar with and they’d rather go with a new product,” says Connor.

Then, while he was on holiday last year, Connor’s partner spotted an email to an old address that they initially suspected was spam. It asked if they might be available for and interested in a revival. Five months after that initial approach from Foxtel, Nankervis and co-writer Michael Ward had scripted the series, the team had reassembled, all eight episodes had been shot and editing was almost finished. They’d been waiting for a green light and they knew exactly what they were doing.

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With its love of music and reverence for the people who make it, RocKwiz has won a valued place in viewers’ hearts. It’s created a warm and welcoming community where the familiarity of its well-honed format – trivia questions, ad-lib banter, a combo of established and emerging music acts – is regarded as an asset rather than a liability.

It’s also easy to understand why it might’ve been an attractive proposition for Foxtel. Representing an investment in local production at a time when the industry is crying out for such commitments from subscription services, it’s a program with an established brand name and dedicated fan base. Not only that, it’s economical to make as it takes place in a single studio.

So the RocKwiz revival ticks a lot of boxes. For his part, Connor says: “We’re incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have another go because our love for the show is probably as strong, or stronger, than all those people that are on the lists. Hopefully, it breathes a bit of life back into it and we get to do more.”

RocKwiz is on Fox8, Friday, February 24, 7.30pm, and Foxtel on Demand.

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